July 24, 2005

Patriot Action

Hello, Everybody—Nice seeing you again.

Some time ago—a few weeks, a couple months, I’m not sure–I noticed a big beige box in Grand Central Terminal near one of the information windows next to the big ramp that leads up to Vanderbilt Hall. The box was made out of sheet metal and had what looked like a stovepipe coming out of the top of it with a funnel-shaped cap on the top. I walked over to look at it, and it was humming away, making a noise like an air conditioner or a dehumidifier. “Checking for gas,” I thought. It just seemed obvious that it was some kind of Homeland Security machine to warn us when the Bad Thing happens.

A couple weeks later I saw some guys in MTA vests, accompanied by a cop, out in the middle of the main concourse at Grand Central. They had a funny little device set up on a table—it reminded me of those 4-armed things in physics class that spin around in sunlight, except this one was bigger and had some kind of paper tape printout spooling out of the bottom of it. So I walked over to check it out. “Excuse me,” I said, “But what is this thing?” The vest guys looked at me and looked at the cop. The cop nodded. “It’s to test the air flow in the terminal,” one of the vest guys said. Yeah, that’s what I thought it was.

A few days after that, all the National Guard soldiers and the MTA police in the terminal suddenly were walking around with bulky canvas pouches hanging from their belts. This was new equipment that they’d never carried before. Gas masks, I figured, so I asked. Yeah, that’s what they were. I have to wonder if all these studies and precautions are being taken because some security consultant just happened to think of it, or is it being done because there’s a real threat? I go through Grand Central every day—if it’s a real threat, then where’s MY gas mask? It seems like I can either go with the survivalists or with the even scarier folks who find gasmasks especially ... um ... interesting.

I’m a little skeptical about all these new “security” measures anyway. Like right after the first London bombings a couple weeks ago, the Port Authority cut off cell phone access in all the tunnels. They said it was to keep terrorists from setting off cell-phone-triggered bombs, but then everybody complained that it also kept regular folks from calling for help in case of an emergency, and a couple of big-deal security consultants were quoted as saying it was a bad idea, so then they turned the cell phone access back on. It made the whole thing seem like a panicky reaction to something happening 4,000 miles away rather than a well-thought-out security policy.

They followed that up with the new random-search policy. New York police are now stopping subway and bus passengers and searching their bags—without probable cause—supposedly at random. The Daily News sent out 5 reporters to check out the policy: Pete Donohue, Jego Armstrong, Jonathan Lemire, Veronika Belenkaya, and Tamer El-Ghobashy. Guess which one was the only one stopped and searched? In fact, he was stopped and searched twice. So random. At least it’s better than London’s Metropolitan Police policy of randomly selecting subway passengers to shoot five times in the head. And it turns out that the NYPD’s random searches are costing millions of dollars in overtime, so I’m betting they’ll be discontinued as soon as they can find a couple of big-deal security consultants to say it’s a bad idea. In the meantime, I've decided that I will decline to be searched. If the police stop me, I'll tell them I understand they're just doing their job, but that I believe the U.S. Constitution is supposed to protect me from unreasonable searches. I know they won't let me on the train, but, jeez, people have died to defend our freedoms, the least I can do is be late for work.

Grand Central has been patrolled nonstop by armed National Guard soldiers for a while now. The first time I ever saw them, I was getting off a train with an older guy, an attorney who lives upstate. “Look at the soldiers,” he said. “Aww,” I replied, “they don’t scare me.” He looked at me oddly. “They’re not supposed to scare you, Bronwyn,” he said. “They’re supposed to make you feel safe.” Well, it’s been a few years now, and I can tell you that it’s not working. Seeing soldiers with weapons and gas masks everywhere I go does not make me feel safer than I felt in the old days when National Guard patrols at the train station would have been unthinkable.

The basic assumption of democracy is that people are good. What do you get when the basic assumption is that any random person may be really, really bad?

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Comments

Whats wrong with having your bag searched? It's better than just saying "nobody with a bag over a certain size / weight will be allowed on mass transit" or something equally stupid. It's either that, or you just wait for someone to set a bomb off.

And what about sniffer dogs? Isn't that an invasion of privacy because they can smell so well? The goverment might decide to target people who happen to take indian food to eat at work or something.

Your being a sloppy thinking liberal, as if this practice really did impinge on your freedom of speach or anything vaguely important. There are *much* larger and more significant infringements on our civil liberties than random bag searches on mass transit systems. Get some perspective.

I travelled through Grand Central Terminal yesterday (7/24) as I often do to visit my family and I noticed no bag searches at all. The announcements were made that random searches were being conducted but the hour and ten minutes that I was in the Terminal saw no such searches. I was all ready to have my bag searched too!

What I did notice is that Asian commuters/passengers with luggage were getting funny looks from some Caucasians. No racial profiling, please.

I don't know where you're reading a liberal protestation of the decline of freedom of speech into this. She wants her 4th amendment (perhaps you need a primer? does "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures" ring a bell?) rights to be respected. I thought conservatives were supposed to be against bigger government, for stricter interpretations of the constitution and all that jazz. Apparently not.
As long as you're appointing yourself arbiter of Amendments That Matter, could you let us know what other rights we really don't need or deserve and should just cede away because something bad happened somewhere? I'm sure there are plenty of other freedoms you can enumerate that can be stripped away that won't improve anyone's security a damn.
Am I being a sloppy-thinking conservative here?

Regarding the subway searches, Flex Your Rights Foundation has an excellent Citizen's Guide to Refusing New York Subway Searches detailing how to reject a potential search while entering the subway. Thought you might be interested.

I'm with you Bronwyn C! This bag searching business is akin to the old taking-off-your-shoes-at-the-airport trick. I'd feel a lot more secure if I COULD HEAR ANNOUNCEMENTS in the subway for crying out loud.

Ben Franklin said this: They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

And Ted Koppel said this on 14 May 2004, and I believe this has DEFINITELY COME TO PASS:
There is a direct correlation between the perception of threats to America's security and the contraction of our rights and freedoms. We need to critically examine the nature and scope of those threats; and where they exist, we must be prepared to calibrate our rights and freedoms. If we fail to do that now, at a time of relative sanity, when it is still possible for voices of moderation to be heard, then we will have condemned ourselves to having those choices made in a climate of national hysteria.

Coming back from a weekend on Long Island, I had my bag searched at the 34th Street N/R/B/F/Q/V etc. etc. stop. No big deal, really, it was over with in seconds. I'm pretty sure I was singled out solely because of the size of my bag (I'm a blonde haired white guy). But in these situations, it's hard to resist the temptation to think along the lines of, "what if I actually WAS contemplating the mass murder of infidels today?" With that in mind, a couple of things immediately occurred to me:

A) The search was so cursory and half-hearted, I could have been (theoretically, for the purposes of this little thought experiment) concealing a sawed-off 12 guage in my bag and no-one would've be the wiser.
B) What's to stop me from setting off my (theoretical, imaginary) bomb right there on the little search table? After all, the area where the searches were being conducted -- that is, the space between the token booth and turnstyles, for crying out loud -- was sufficiently target-rich to secure my place among the holiest of martyrs (and I don't even like raisins).

What did I conclude from this experience? While I hardly found it to be harrassing or even inconvenient, these stupid bag searches serve no other purpose than to give the appearance that "something is being done". I am absolutely convinced they will have zero effect as far as improving safety or security; in fact, as I mentioned, these little checkpoints actually make inviting targets. Personally, I find the most irksome and offensive thing about this practice is the implicit assumption that we're just stupid enough to be mollified by this useless and wasteful gesture.